Hi!

Midnight here.

Here's 32.

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Whore Street

Sasuke watched Naruto pick at his food with something very close to disgust. The younger boy had become... strange... in the past days at the hospital.

The black-haired kid knew that it had something to do with eyeliner-man. Not that Naruto told him anything. The blonde was bouncy and hyper and whatnot all, but it was too much. It was unnatural, and even the rest of the Konoha crew – despite visiting for only an hour or so each day opposed to Sasuke's twelve-hour vigils – had begun to worry about the strange behavior.

Sasuke had been able to brush his doubts away with the complete happiness that Naruto was alive and nice to him – but it was just so fake, this strange cheerfulness, that he'd been forced to acknowledge it after a while.

Yes, it was something with Gaara.

Iruka ghosted in at times, sharing meaningful looks with Naruto before leaving. It looked as though he and Kakashi had most certainly gotten over their shyness, if the screams and moans of the past few nights were any indication.

The rest of the Konoha crew was almost back to normal, though Naruto's absence was still disturbing to all of them. Shikamaru had returned to his staring at the awning, the girls had gone back to playing cards, Kiba and Shino had gone back to begging after taking a break during the days while Naruto was missing. It was basically all default again, and Sasuke could lie and tell himself that the last step towards normality would be Naruto coming home to sleep next to him.

But he didn't tell himself that untruth.

He watched Naruto eat -- well, nibble. Whenever the blonde let his guard down, he looked depressed as fuck.

Like now – eyes flat and dark, mouth a firm line.

Shit. Sasuke would rather have Gaara here, fucking Naruto, every night and obviously than this... nothingness.

The neutral feeling had resurfaced, and Sasuke felt as though he'd probably fall to his knees in front of Gaara if he ever reappeared. He was seemingly the only who could fix this... problem of the blonde's. After all, they'd tried about everything else – even some of the whores from other cliques had come to visit.

"Hey, teme! What's wrong? You look like you're being led to your execution!" came Naruto's mocking voice, the happy mask fully back in place.

Sasuke grinned wearily. "Yeah. I'm being hanged. Just got the message."

Naruto's chuckle was fake, like his grin was fake and his appetite was fake and his whole healthiness was fake.

Fake.

For fuck's sake, where was Gaara?

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hey guys!

fell asleep for a few hours, came back -- 12 alerts °sighs happily°

LUV YOU AAAAAAAAAALL!

it is now 3:40 and I'm drinking gin(ugh – my roommates drank all our vodka) and eating cookies to stay awake.

Tell me whether you liked it!